World Refugee Day

Statement for World Refugee Day 2013 by António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees< (UNHCR, 20 June 2013)

I have come to Jordan on this World Refugee Day to stand by the people of Syria in their time of acute need. I also want to salute Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and all the countries in the region for being generous havens that have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

Joint Statement on World Refugee Day <(ECHO, 20 June 2013)

Today is World Refugee Day: a day of growing concern for the international community as the number of displaced people around the world soars to a dramatic new high. We can count the number of displaced people – more than 46 million, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees – but we cannot quantify the human suffering, the broken families, destroyed childhoods and livelihoods that come with fleeing a war or a disaster.

Remarks at the World Refugee Day Event< (U.S. Department of State, 20 June 2013)

I’m delighted to welcome our ambassadors here. Thank you all for joining us this morning. And it’s a privilege for me to be here. And I want to thank our outstanding Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees, and Migration, Anne Richard, who has been a tireless advocate on behalf of the world’s most vulnerable people. And I think all of you know that the challenges that we’re here to talk about today are monumental, they are humbling, and they remind us of the unbelievable global, moral responsibility that we have to try to deal with people who face some of the toughest circumstances on earth.

World Refugee Day: Honoring Refugees, Resolving to Prevent Further Displacement< (Brookings, 20 June 2013)

Around the world today, people are commemorating World Refugee Day as a time to honor the strength and the courage of those who have been forced to flee their countries because of persecution, conflict and violence. And there is much to honor. Over the years I have been moved and challenged by the strength and courage of the many different refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) I have met. Many times I have asked myself what I would have done in a similar situation. Would I have had the courage to carry my children across a desert? Could I have paid the necessary bribes and avoided the shelling and the landmines to make it to safety? Would I have been strong enough to start all over in a strange land, learn a new language, hold my family together, preserve our culture?

World Refugee Day: healthcare access remains a priority< (Reuters, 20 June 2013)

On World Refugee Day, Doctors of the World renews its call that refugees everywhere should have access to healthcare. With a report by the UN’s refugee agency saying that more people are displaced today than at any time since 1994, there is a pressing need to address this universal right to healthcare.

World Refugee Day: housing refugees in durable homes, not tents <(The Guardian, 20 June 2013)

The current crisis in Syria has once again brought to the attention of the world the plight of refugees. Amid political upheaval in the Syrian state, people have been uprooted from their homes and are now either in, or awaiting placement in, refugee camps across the region. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated crisis, but one which is mirrored across the globe on a daily basis.

World Refugee Day at the Refugee Hotel <(IOM, 18 June 2013)

Ever been to New York? Was your first sight of it the gleaming Manhattan skyline? Lady Liberty? My first time in the Big Apple I just glimpsed some high-rises in the smog as my Virgin Airlines flight bounced through the clouds and smog into Newark on a wet November day in 1991.

Then I got grilled by immigration as I only had a one-way ticket. And my pal Maurice went to JFK to collect me, so I was stuck, sitting on a bench, smoking duty-free cigarette after duty-free cigarette, in the days before mobile phones, looking into a dark puddle for hours so no one would see how scared I was.

Immigration

New UNHCR report says global forced displacement at 18-year high< (UNHCR, 19 June 2013)

More people are refugees or internally displaced than at any time since 1994, with the crisis in Syria having emerged as a major new factor in global displacement.

UNHCR's annual Global Trends report, released on Wednesday, covers displacement that occurred during 2012 based on data from governments, NGO partners, and the UN refugee agency itself. The report shows that as of the end of 2012, more than 45.2 million people were in situations of displacement compared to 42.5 million at the end of 2011.

Syria Crisis

Syria: UNHCR assistance reaches Al Raqqa; Influx into Lebanon continues from Al-Qusayr< (UNHCR, 14 June 2013)

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 14 June 2013, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

On 9 and 12 June, UNHCR emergency relief assistance reached Al Raqqa, an area of northern Syria which has not been accessible for the past three months and where the humanitarian situation is reported to be extremely dire. Taking advantage of a window of opportunity, nine trucks filled with mattresses, blankets, hygiene kits and kitchen sets were dispatched from Damascus. Seven are confirmed to have reached Raqqa and confirmation is awaited for the last two. This assistance will help some 5,000 persons displaced in this area.

Fact Sheet: President Obama Increases Humanitarian Assistance to Syrians< (The White House, 17 June 2013)

Today, during his meeting with G-8 leaders in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, President Obama announced over $300 million in additional life-saving humanitarian assistance to help feed, shelter, and provide medical care for children, women, and men affected by the ongoing conflict in Syria. The United States remains the single-largest contributor of humanitarian assistance for the Syrian people, and this new contribution brings total U.S. humanitarian assistance for the Syria crisis to nearly $815 million since the crisis began.

Lebanon, Overrun by Syrian Refugees< (New York Times, 19 June 2013)

ZAHLÉ, Lebanon — MY eyes kept being drawn to the shoes. The tiny pink running shoes with Velcro straps, on the feet of the 2-year-old girl sitting quietly on her mother’s lap. She fidgeted only a bit — jostling occasionally with her 7-year-old twin sisters while her father told a United Nations worker what had driven his young family 20 miles from Syria to this small town in Lebanon. They did not merely leave; they fled. And not once, but three times.

Modern-day Slavery

Remarks at the Annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) Release< (U.S Department of State, 19 June 2013)

When we think of the scale of modern-day slavery – literally tens of millions who live in exploitation – this whole effort can seem daunting. But it’s the right effort. And there are countless voiceless people, countless nameless people except to their families or perhaps a phony name by which they are being exploited, who look to us for their freedom and for the possibility of life itself. It’s no understatement to say that we are working to tackle an issue that millions of people assumed had been dealt with a long time ago.

Photo credit © UNHCR / June 2013